[Bioperl-l] Fwd: question about Bio::Tools::Run::StandAloneBlast

[Chris Fields]

On Apr 15, 2010, at 12:41 PM, Robert Bradbury wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 2:06 PM, Chris Fields <cjfields at illinois.edu> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> ...which has absolutely nothing to do with organismal evolution, except in
>> the realm of Terminator and similar sci-fi.
> 
> 
> Chris, you are correct, because the rates of "organismal evolution" are
> relatively fixed in our solar system.  Short of a GRB going off nearby they
> are in effect constant [1].
> 
> So in effect you are asserting that there can be "no" non-sudden breaks in
> the natural process of evolution?
> [I would in contrast argue geological transitions which might indicate the
> contrary.]
> For example, can the mutational rate of an organism decline to zero or can
> it evolve to the point where the genome destroys itself?
> 
> Granting your point of the question of # of species on the planet, I would
> say that our ability to sequence their genomes is expanding much faster than
> our ability to interpret them.  I would further assert that our ability to
> sequence them is expanding more rapidly than their ability to speciate  [2]
> [for mammals this appears to require several million years.]
> 
> That said, unless you view the number of species on the planet as being
> created faster than our ability to sequence them, there is no argument.
> 
> 
> 
> 1. A Global thermonuclear war or a slew of nuclear power reactor "accidents"
> could increase the global mutation rate.  But it is likely that the mutation
> rate is fixed for the short time period of human lives.
> 2. The ability to speciate is presumably fundamentally tied to ones ability
> to mutate ones genome.

Um, okay?

chris